Empty seats greet Olympians

ATHENS — Suppose they held an Olympics and nobody came.

In sharp contrast to the turnaway crowds of Salt Lake 2002, when more than 95 percent of the tickets were sold — and that's not counting the free ones taken by the Legislature — and in Sydney 2000 before that, only slightly more than half of the 5.3 million tickets to the various events at the Athens Games of 2004 have been sold.

Great blocks of stadiums sit empty during competition. (You'd think the Clippers were playing.) It hasn't yet reached the point of an event beginning with no one watching, but at the equestrian arena last Sunday, which coincided with the Greek national holiday that observes the death of Mary, the horses seemed to outnumber the spectators.

It's true many of the Olympic sports are unfamiliar to the Greeks.

That's one of the most frequent reasons given for the lack of attendance.

But the Olympics are made up of obscure sports. How many people do you know who Greco-Roman wrestle or play team handball when they get the chance?

Or luge, for that matter? Before the Salt Lake Games, Utahns knew as much about luge as they knew about nuclear physics, yet during the competition the luge track looked like a rugby scrum. The crowds were backed up so far from the track that most people who went to the Olympic Park to see luge — after climbing a mile straight up to get there — didn't actually see luge.

Here in Greece, there has been no such phenomenon. They're either a lot less sports crazy than we are in America, or a lot smarter.

Considering their tradition, this is hard to figure. It was Greeks, after all, who invented the Olympics. They held events such as the pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing where two nude men tried to maim each other, and the hoplite, a race where runners had to wear helmets and carry shields. The Greeks know athletic obscurity.

And people flocked to those original Greek Games. They were so popular that Nero, the Emperor of Rome, built a house on the grounds at Olympia — the ultimate luxury loge.

To get their Games back for the first time in 108 years, the Greeks spent $7.2 billion — which makes it look like Salt Lake City bought its $1.5 billion Olympics at Kmart — and erected sparkling new stadiums all over Athens. There are 35 of them, each one a modern temple to sport, magnificent in detail and amenities.